Apparently, Vaping Alcohol Is a Thing

One of my coworkers pretty regularly gives me ideas of things to write about and today he asked me if I’d heard about people vaping alcohol. As usual, I set out on a Google search to figure out what’s real and what’s not, and surprise, surprise—vaping alcohol is a thing. I couldn’t believe it at first because the first few websites I looked through were actually condoning it; not just condoning but actually exclaiming how cool and fun it is. Things like this cause me to slap my forehead aggressively.

Vaping alcohol is extraordinarily dangerous. When a person drinks alcohol, it passes through the digestive tract, including the liver. Some of the alcohol is absorbed, some of it is filtered out and excreted, and if a person has drunk more than their body’s tolerance, they’ll throw it up as the body’s mechanism to defend itself from alcohol poisoning.

If a person vapes alcohol, the alcohol gets absorbed straight through the lungs and bypasses the digestive tract. This rapidly increases blood alcohol content with no way for the body to expel it if levels get too high. The result of this is acute alcohol poisoning that can even be fatal.

The upsetting part of all this is that there are devices out there that are sold with the specific purpose of allowing users to vaporize their favorite liquor. What’s not realized is that vaporizing even a small amount of liquor can lead to intense intoxication. If a person vaporizes too much, all bets are off. This is just our society’s next iteration of dumb behavior that someone initially thought was a great idea, but wound up having catastrophic results.

Vaping alcohol is stupid, for lack of a better term. Alcohol causes enough problems being consumed in its usual, liquid state so inhaling ultra-concentrated alcohol vapor isn’t the brightest of ideas. Of course, I’m sure some people are going to take this way too far and parents are going to have to start talking to their kids about the dangers of vaping alcohol.

On an almost regular basis, new, novel ways of taking drugs have been created that lead to nothing but problems. The continuing crisis in this country has definitely proved to be the mother of invention and none of these inventions are doing us any good.

Vaping alcohol is more than likely to wind up being some new, disturbing trend that will probably create some news headlines after a few kids succumb to alcohol poisoning. The other thing that doesn’t help is that some popular websites out there are actually talking about how awesome vaping alcohol is. Trust me, that’s the last thing we need right now. So, safeguard you kids and your family. Make sure to speak to your kids about the dangers of vaping alcohol.

Jason Good

Jason has been working in the field of addiction and recovery for over 10 years. Having been an addict himself, he brings real-world experience to the table when helping addicts and their families, while also offering a first-person perspective to the current drug crisis. Jason is passionate about educating the public about what’s currently going on in our society, and thankfully, offers practical solutions. Jason is also the co-host of The Addiction Podcast—Point of No Return. You can follow Jason on Google+, Twitter, or connect with him on LinkedIn.

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